The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-12-03


and double in at the waist, some overstep,
Others cant to one side, this one has one
shoulder higher than the other, and that
one has both too high. Some have heavy
bodies and light legs, others the reverse, and
so on, each with his peculiarities. A
thoroughly well-proportioned man, easy and
graceful in his movements, is far from
frequent sight" These same things
might be said of many young people at
our schools and colleges. Is there not,
then, great need of availing ourselves of
these means which will raise the stopped
shoulder to the height of its fellow, that
will increase the arm to the size of its mate,
that will change the thin, narrow, hollow
chest into one round, full, deep and roomy,
that will replace the feeble lungs and heart
by vigorous ones, that will overcome the
tendency to lean the head forward, and that
will give an erect carriage and firm tread
Physical culture comprehends all such
subjects as clothing, food, bathing and
ventilation; and they all have their great
Importance in bringing about such results
as | have referred to. But exercise of
all the agents of physical culture, is brought
most prominently before us, and might
say is most important to us, because it is
so liable to be misunderstood, misapplied
or neglected We may dress too thinly,
eat too much or too little, and we are i'm
mediately warned of its consequences by
bodily discomfort With exercise the case
is different, and we may go on from day to
day, exercising in wrong way, or not at
all, without any preceptible disadvantage
until the great harm dawns upon us all at
once. The penalty comes more slowly, but
none the less surely.
desire then to call your attention to
the advantages to be derived from intel
ligent, systematic exercise, first in point
of health, and then bodily development.
1t will be necessary in considering the ad-
yantages to health, to recall some little
knowledge of physiology. We must re-
member how the heart is the great reser-
yoir of the blood, how it sends it out
through all parts of the body by means Of
the arteries, and receives it again by means
of the veins, thus having the whole guam
tity of blood travel through it fifty times
in the course of an hour. The blood in
this process of circulation accomplishes two
great purposes, first, collecting and carrying
off the dead tissues, for the whole body is
composed of tissues which are constantly
dying, and secondly, conveying the fresh
material out of which new living tissues
are to be made. The whole question of
health turns upon the death and removal
of these tissues, and this in turn depends
upon the circulation of the blood. If the
tissues die more rapidly than they are re-
placed, disease ensues, and hence the
slightest change in the blood of quantity
or quality, makes all the difference in the
man. No wonder the blood is called the
life current. The more rapidly the blood
is pumped into the arteries and forced on
its journey, the more quickly the wasted
material is removed and the fresh material
substituted, and the more frequently are
the parts of the body built anew. Now,
what exercise does, is to set the heart in
more rapid action, as many of you have
experienced in this daily practice, sending
the blood rushing in all quarters, redd IN
ing the surface, and animating and invigo-
rating the whole body In this way it
assists growth and prevents disease.
The muscles for our purposes may be
said to be made up of numerous fibre-like
cords bound together, which produce
motion by shortening in much the same
way that piece of stretched rubber
does. No motion of the body can be
made except by shortening one of these
muscles. They are so composed that their
very existence, certainly any healthy ex-
istence, depends on their being used.
They were made to encounter and over
come resistences, and being created for
this, their strength will be developed in the
proportion 10 which this sign is remem-
bered. We are all familiar with the expe-
rience of having these muscles strengthened
by use and made capable of exerting more
power, and some of us have seen the fact
still more clearly brought out by the entire
disuse of a muscle, as for instance when a
broken arm is laid in plaster of Paris for
some weeks, how it shrinks and becomes
thin, the muscles dwindle and lose their
contractility. Now bear in mind the fact
that there are over five hundred pairs of
muscles woven around the body, and think
of all the motions these by their combina-
tions are capable of producing, and it is
easy to see that they are not all brought
into use by the ordinary affairs of daily
life, and that if we would keep them toned
up we must exercise them daily by some
such methods as the gymnasium affords.
Not to use muscle enough has the same
effect as stretching piece of rubber too
often. 1t has perhaps never occurred to
the most of you that the secret of so many
heads sunken between the shoulders is
that the muscles of the neck are not suf-
fciently used, or that the secret of so many
dropping shoulders is that the muscles of
the back and legs are not brought into
play often enough. 1t is for this reason
that the first training of the soldier is the
''settiDg up" drill.
Let me cite one case out of many where
exercise through muscular developement
prevents disease. Twenty per cent. of all
people die from lung trouble Of one kind
or another. Consumption first attacks the
extreme longitudinal parts of the lungs.
The American race has particularly long
narrow chest, thus placing these extreme
parts very deep into the interior. In ordi-
binary every day life, we breathe easy, not
deep, setting only the part of the lungs
next to the windpipe in motion, and only
where we breathe heavy and deep are we
setting the lung lobes farthest from the
windpipe in motion. People of quiet
passive temperament whose lives flow calmly
without excitement, one day like the other,
accustom themselves in time to y light
superficial mode of breathing, SO that the
extreme points of the outside lobes of the
lungs are never set in motion. The lungs
as you know consist of muscular tissue and
if never fully inflated will undergo the
same process of degeneration as the arm |
spoke of in the bandage, and the result as
you might suppose is consumption.
Exercise would undoubtedly enlarge the
chest and keep the muscles active and
elastic
E-o.o,,e n,..e &c ,,,oll -, tba otbar ,,o-te